This document outlines lessons learned from a joint UNHCR/WFP project in Iraq aimed at identifying and mitigating the risks of abuse of power in cash assistance. The cash transfer mechanisms reviewed during the project include mobile money, e-vouchers and cash delivered through money transfer agents.
Conducted in January 2019, the UNHCR-WFP mission built on the recommendations from the Humanitarian Policy Group-Ground Truth Solutions research Improving User Journeys for Humanitarian Cash Transfers, which identified challenges and risks from an end user perspective along different cash transfer mechanisms in Iraq.
WFP and UNHCR met with mobile money operators, national regulators and humanitarian actors, and held focus group discussions with women and men receiving cash assistance through mobile money and e-vouchers in the Darashakran refugee camp, where both agencies operate. The mission concluded with a roundtable during which key findings were discussed with partners from the private sector (banks, mobile money providers and specialized financial institutions), the public sector (the Central Bank of Iraq and the National Communications and Media Commission of Iraq), donors and national and international humanitarian and development organizations and agencies.
